Human Brain Facts and Answers Human Brain Facts and Answers Questions answers and facts relating to the human brain and the study of the brain organ including the spinal cord. What is the Brain? The brain is the center of the nervous system in animals. All vertebrates, and the majority of invertebrates, have a brain. Some "primitive" animals such as jellyfishes and starfishes have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all. In vertebrates, the brain is located in the head, protected by the skull and close to the primary sensory apparatus of vision, hearing, balance, taste, and smell. The human brain appears to have no localized center of conscious control. The brain seems to derive consciousness from interaction among numerous systems within the brain. The human brain controls the central nervous system by way of the cranial nerves and spinal cord , the peripheral nervous system and regulates virtually all human activity. The brain is made up of over 100 billion nerve cells with each brain cell connected to around 10,000 other cells, which equals around 1000 trillion connections in your brain. Your brain is actually very soft, jelly-like, and not grey but a deep red in color.

The brain controls both involuntary, or "lower," actions, such as heart rate, respiration, and digestion. Complex, or "higher," mental activity, such as thought, reason, and abstraction, is consciously controlled. Brain Facts and Figures: How long is the spinal cord and how much does it weigh? The average spinal cord is 45 cm long in men and 43 cm long in women. The spinal cord weighs approx. 35 grams. How much does the brain weigh? The human brain weighs on average three pounds, or 1.5 kg. What size is an adult humans brain? The human brain is about the size of a cantaloupe. Average brain width = 140 mm Average brain length = 167 mm Average brain height = 93 mm How much oxygen does the brain need to stay "conscious"? An adults brain requires around 20% of the body's oxygen. How much blood is needed by the brain? Approximately 20% of the blood flowing from the heart is pumped to the brain. The brain needs constant blood flow in order to keep up with the heavy metabolic demands of the neurons. What is the largest part of the brain?

The biggest part of the brain is the cerebrum which makes up 85% of the brain's weight. The cerebrum is the thinking part of the brain and it controls your voluntary muscles. Does the brain work at the Speed of Light? No, far from it. Axons, the long output connection from a cell, come in two types: myelinated and unmyelinated. Myelinated axons have an extra layer of "insulation," a fatty substance, which allows the impulse to travel about 10 to 100 meters per second. Unmyelinated axons only transmit at about 1 meter per second. When the signal reaches the end, it has to cross the synapse to influence the next cell, which adds about 5 ms. 10 meters per second = 22.356 mph and 100 meters per second = 223.561 mph.

As you can see it is a lot slower than the speed of light in a vacuum which is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second, or 186 000 miles per second, or 670,616,629 mph. Brain Questions and Answers What are studies of the brain called? The study of the brain and its functions is known as neuroscience. Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. Neurophysiology is the study of normal healthy brain activity. Neurology and psychiatry are both medical approaches to the study of the mind and its disorders and pathology or mental illness respectively. How many main parts to the brain are there? The human brain can be divided into three main parts: the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain: 1/ The forebrain includes the several lobes of the cerebral cortex that control higher functions. 2/ Midbrain functions include routing, selecting, mapping, and cataloguing information, including information perceived from the environment and information that is remembered and processed throughout the cerebral cortex. 3/ Hindbrain - (rhombencephalon) is a developmental categorization of portions of the central nervous system in vertebrates.

A rare disease of the rhombencephalon, "rhombencephalosynapsis" is characterized by a missing vermis resulting in a fused cerebellum. Patients generally present with cerebellar ataxia. What is a neuron? A neuron is a nerve cell in the brain. The human brain is made up of approximately 100 billion (100,000,000,000) neurons. Is the brain an organ? The brain is an organ as it controls the functions of the body. It is sometimes referred to as a muscle of thinking as the brain actually tells your muscles what to do. The brain is the most important organ in the body because it controls all of the bodily functions as well as the other organs. Do men have a larger brain than women? Male humans have about a 10% larger brain than females.

A study of 46 adults aged 22-49 years found an average brain volume of 1273.6cc for men, ranging from 1052.9 to 1498.5cc, and 1131.1cc for women, ranging from 974.9 to 1398.1cc. However differences in male and female brain weight and size do not mean differences in mental ability. There is evidence of a gradual increase in average brain size over the last centuries, estimated to have been around 0.5% per decade. Is a computer smarter than a human brain? The brain has a processing capacity of 0.1 quadrillion instructions per second. The fastest super computer in the world, called Roadrunner is capable of handling 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second. However the computational power of the human brain is difficult to ascertain, as the human brain is not easily paralleled to the binary number processing of computers.

For while the human brain is calculating a math problem, it is subconsciously processing data from millions of nerve cells that handle the visual input of the paper and surrounding area, the aural input from both ears, and the sensory input of millions of cells throughout the body. The brain is also regulating the heartbeat, monitoring oxygen levels, hunger and thirst requirements, breathing patterns and hundreds of other essential factors throughout the body. It is simultaneously comparing data from the eyes and the sensory cells in the arms and hands to keep track of the position of the pen and paper as the calculation is being performed. Can an adult grow more brain cells? A landmark study in late 1998 by researchers from Sweden and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, showed for the first time that some brain cells in mature humans may regenerate under certain circumstances. Do humans only use 10% of the brain? No, we use all of our brain. What are Neurodegenerative diseases? Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease , Parkinson's disease , motor neurone disease, and Huntington's disease are caused by the gradual death of individual neurons, leading to decrements in movement control, memory, and cognition.

Does alcohol kill brain cells every time you drink? The idea that alcohol kills brain cells has long been promoted. Drinking alcohol does not actually "kill" brain cells. Roberta Pentney, professor of anatomy and cell biology at the University at Buffalo, concludes that alcohol does not kill brain cells but it damages the dendrites, the branched ends of nerve cells that bring messages into the brain cell causing damage to the way the cells in the brain communicate. Luckily the damage is largely reversible and not permanent. However years of alcohol abuse can cause serious neurological damage, including Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. In what part of the brain do you get brain tumors? Brain tumors are classified depending on the exact site of the tumor, the type of tissue involved, benign or malignant tendencies of the tumor, and other factors. Primary (true) brain tumors are commonly located in the posterior cranial fossa in children and in the anterior two-thirds of the cerebral hemispheres in adults, although they can affect any part of the brain. How are memories stored and retrieved? Unfortunately we don't yet comprehend exactly how this happens or how memories are recalled years later for retrieval. What makes up the human brain?

See our Definitions of Human Brain Components Define Consciousness: A constellation of attributes of mind such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, and the ability to perceive a relationship between oneself and one's environment. Define Unconsciousness: An alteration of mental state that involves complete or near-complete lack of responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli. Being in a comatose state or coma is an illustration of unconsciousness. Fainting due to a drop in blood pressure and a decrease of the oxygen supply to the brain is an illustration of a temporary loss of consciousness. How and why do we dream? Dreams have fascinated nearly everyone for thousands of years. There are two different schools of thought as to why we dream: the physiological school, and the psychological school. While many theories have been proposed, not single consensus has emerged as to why we dream. Some researchers suggest that dreams serve no real purpose, while other believe that dreaming is essential to mental, emotional and physical well-being. One theory for dreaming suggests dreams serve to clean up clutter from the mind. How does the brain control body temperature? The Hypothalamus part of the brain regulates body temperture much like a thermostat.

The hypothalamus knows what temperature your body should be (about 98.6 Fahrenheit or 37 Celsius), and if your body is too hot, the hypothalamus tells it to sweat. If you're too cold, the hypothalamus makes you start shivering. Shivering and sweating helps get your body's temperature back to normal. Are humans born with all their brain cells? Babies are born with around a 100 billion brain cells, but only a small number of neurons are actually connected. By three years of age a childs brain has formed about 1,000 trillion connections, about twice as many as adults have. At around 11 years, the brain begins to prune unused connections. Connections that are used repeatedly in the early years become permanent; those that are not are eliminated. Hence the saying, "use it or lose it." How and why do we sleep? We still don't fully understand the importance of sleep however we do know that sleep is the time when the body does most of its repair work; muscle tissue is rebuilt and restored and tissure building growth hormone is secreted during sleep.

A good way to understand the role of sleep is to look at what happens when we don't get enough sleep. Are IQ tests accurate measures of intelligence? First you need to define intelligence, a very hard task, think about it. Intelligence is an encompassing term. "We cannot measure intelligence when we have not defined it" said journalist Walter Lippmann in the early 1920's. According to most current definitions intelligence is made up of the skills of logical reasoning, problem solving, critical thinking, and adaptation. IQ tests are not very reliable and the scores may vary as much as 15 points from one test to another. The average IQ scores for many populations have been rising at an average rate of three points per decade since the early 20th century with most of the increase in the lower half of the IQ range. When is the brain considered dead? Brain death is the irreversible end of all brain activity (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life) due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of blood flow and oxygenation. A brain-dead individual has no clinical evidence of brain function upon physical examination. This includes no response to pain and no cranial nerve reflexes.

Reflexes include pupillary response (fixed pupils), oculocephalic reflex, corneal reflex, no response to the caloric reflex test and no spontaneous respirations. The diagnosis of brain death needs to be rigorous to determine whether the condition is irreversible. Legal criteria vary, but it generally requires neurological exams by two independent physicians. The exams must show complete absence of brain function, and may include two isoelectric (flat-line) EEGs 24 hours apart. If tests show brain activity, the patient may be in a coma or vegetative state. A brain dead person doesn't show brain activity. It is important to distinguish between brain death and states that may mimic brain death. Some comatose patients can recover, and some patients with severe irreversible neurologic dysfunction will nonetheless retain some lower brain functions such as spontaneous respiration, despite the losses of both cortex and brainstem functionality. Thus, anencephaly, in which there is no higher brain present, is generally not considered brain death, though it is certainly an irreversible condition in which it may be appropriate to withdraw life support. Today, both the legal and medical communities use "brain death" as a legal definition of death.

Using brain-death criteria, the medical community can declare a person legally dead even if life support equipment keeps the body's metabolic processes working. Do brain supplements work in enhancing memory and brain power? As we age our brain is more susceptible to memory loss and diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. The functionality of the human brain can also be affected due to problems in nervous system or inadequate blood supply to the brain. Here are few brain supplements said to assist the brain. Interesting Brain Facts: The diameter of an individual brain neuron is just 4 microns thick, you could fit 30,000 neurons on the head of a pin. Your brain generates nearly 25 watts of power while you're awake, which is enough to light up a light bulb. Alcohol interferes with brain processes by weakening connections between neurons. Every time you have a new thought, or recall a memory, a new brain connection is made between two or more brain cells. A living brain is so soft you could cut it with a table knife. Loss of oxygen for just 5 to 10 minutes can cause serious brain damage. The brain can stay alive for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen. After that cells begin die.

The average adult's brain weighs 3 - 4 lbs. but consumes 20% of the bodys oxygen supply. The human brain contains around 400 miles of blood vessels. There is no sense of pain within the brain itself which explains why brain surgeons can probe areas of the brain even when the patient is awake. The left side of your brain (left hemisphere) controls the right side of your body; and, the right side of your brain (right hemisphere) controls the left side of your body. Your cerebral cortex is about as thick as a doctors tongue depressor and it grows thicker as you learn more. You will lose consciousness in 10 seconds after the loss of blood supply to the brain. Of all creatures on earth humans have the most complex brain. Differences in brain weight and size do not equal differences in mental ability. If stretched out the cerebral cortex would be 0.23 sq. m or 2.5sq.ft. Average surface area of the cerebral cortex is 2,500 cm2 or 2.69 sq.ft. There are about 100 billion neurons in the human brain, the same number of stars in our galaxy.

Questions we would all like answered: How does memory work in the brain? How is memory stored and then recalled at a later date, even decades later? Why do we dream? What causes the dreams we have and what is the purpose of dreams? A. While dreaming brain tends to make up the time needed for repairs, thus creating virtual experiences. While dreaming brain also refreshes stored memories, deciding which ones to keep and which not. Why do we sleep? Why do we need to sleep and how does the brain enter and maintain the sleep stage? A. We sleep in order to regenerate damaged parts of body and to dream (which is hard to do, and not recommended while awake and to avoid injury to one self if dreams are intense) How do we think? How do we make decisions, come to conclusions, and charter our course through life? What makes us who we are? How do we each have our own individual personalities and traits? How can a memory be stored in a living cell or group of cells? Is any work being done to create a computer using living cells for information storage and retrieval, possibly duplicating a brain. Water in the Body Now lets take a closer look at the importance of water in our own bodies.

As babies we are approximately 75 to 80% water and as we grow older this percentage decreases until the percentage is reduced to approximately 60 to 65% for men and 50 to 60% for women. The human brain is about 85% water and our bones are between 10 to 15% water. The chemical structure of water H2O and both the hydrogen and oxygen have great importance as life giving properties and a preserving force to our systems. Women have a higher percentage of adipose tissue than men, giving them a lower percentage of water. The ability of water to disassemble and rearrange other molecules is essential to the chemistry of life. It does this by forming weak bonds with the other molecules. This is often why we refer to water as the universal solvent. Water is a perfect conductor of electricity and this becomes important in the day to day operation of our bodies. For example, the electrical potential is shared between the brain neurons through electrochemical transmitters. This electrical potential of brain chemistry must be present for any of our "thoughts" to take place. Water is without a doubt one of the very best diet aids and fat reducers: look at what it does . . .

Suppresses your appetite. Reduces sodium buildup and helps maintain muscle tone. It helps the body eliminate waste and toxins. Relieves fluid retention. If you dont give your body water, it holds onto water tenaciously so it wont run out. Reduces fat deposits in the body by helping the body metabolize the fat that is stored in the body, however when your kidneys dont get enough water, this causes the liver to become overloaded. Since the liver is the organ that metabolizes the fat, it cant do that if its doing the kidneys job. The real truth is that water is one of the best cures for our most common ailments. The flip side of this is that there is very little money in selling water and for the most part it is free. Doctors almost never write a prescription for water and yet look what all it can treat: allergies, asthma, depression, high blood pressure, diabetes, headaches, chronic fatigue syndrome, colitis, alcohol dependency, lower back pain, neck pain, and on and on.

Now dont be fooled by considering the coffee, tea or soda pop that you drink as part of your water intake, because if these products are caffeinated (and most of them are) it has just the opposite effect on our bodies. Caffeine acts as a diuretic to our system and actually results in water reduction to our bodies. The same applies to drinks with alcohol. If your drinking these items make sure you dont count them as part of your eight glasses of water per day. Now is it just coincidental that disease and/or health problems dramatically increase as we get older. I dont think so. It has not been well documented but from my own experience, of dealing with older mature people there is a common generalized reduction in the amount of water in their intake, which reduces their body water percentage. Some of the symptons that older people get lead them to reduce their water intake. Loss of water in all tissues continues and is probably involved in many of the physical alterations associated with aging. Does it make a difference what kind of water I drink? It is truly disappointing how much hype and false information is in the marketplace today. Remember that water is the most "perfect" element that has been provided for us on this earth.

I personally do not believe it was by accident. To try changing the chemical structure of water is almost sacrilegious. Im sure you have all read the hype on distilled or de-ionized water being much better for you and even many of the bottled "spring waters" are proving to be extremely deficient in mineral content. It has been established that the magnesium deficiency in our waters contribute to millions of deaths each year, causing everyone to examine the myths of "PURE" water. Most of you are aware that If you put either of distilled or de-ionized waters into a bowl for gold fish they will die . you see there is no longer any oxygen in the water. Now I dont know about you, but I dont like drinking something that kills anything. I know the rebuttal of these manufacturers is that if you want to put it into the goldfish bowl all you have to do is hook up an oxygenation machine to the water. Have you ever seen people that are drinking these waters carrying an oxygen generator? Even if they are, they still are only doing one half of the job to make it as beneficial to our bodies. You must understand that our bodies need the minerals that are in water.

Another myth has been that our bodies readily adsorb colloidal minerals, which is simply not true. Our bodies can only adsorb minerals which are water soluble. I would like to make another point. I am not a strong proponent of chlorine as a disinfectant. It does an excellent job of disinfecting, but if dosed too heavily can cause other problems in our bodies. If any of you have a small Ozone Machine its an excellent way to solve this problem. It is strange that the rest of the world seems to be changing to Ozination and the U.S. is lagging behind. Let me share some of my thoughts on these wonderful things that our bodies are capable of doing. I spent over half of my life thinking that I had taste buds in my mouth that were put there solely for purpose to let me know how delicious my steak tasted or how great a certain dessert was and as usual with knowledge comes reality. The ability of my taste buds to let me know how good or how bad something tasted had nothing to do with my likes or dislikes but everything to do with the inner-workings of my body. You see the taste buds register almost instantaneously, a complete profile of what we put in our mouths.

This is sent to our hypothalamus where it is immediately sent off to the right part of the most sophisticated computer that we all own, called our brain. Here a whole program is immediately started without our knowledge or any conscious effort on our part. Your body and the foods you eat are made up of atoms and molecules. The bodies job is to transform these atoms and the molecules in our food into the kind of atoms and molecules that are found in our bodies. This transformation occurs inside the cells in our bodies. Cells are the basic structural unit of any living thing. Every cell is like a "building block" or a little miniature factory which can process the food we eat into energy for growth and performance of its own particular "body regulating" function. The body is a highly organized system that has a multitude of many different cells with each one specific to a certain function. Cells are organized into "tissues" such as muscle tissues, skin tissues, fat tissues, bone tissues, nerve tissues; in turn these tissues are organized into "organs" such as the digestive organs. This group would include the esophagus, the stomach, the small intestine, the large intestine, the pancreas and the gall bladder.

The liver along with other organs such as the heart, our brains, our lungs and our reproductive organs are all critical to our bodys functions. Organs may contain just one type of tissue, or they may be functionally organized groups of several tissue types. These organs when put together with their related functions are the systems we know as the skeletal, respiratory, reproductive, nervous, circulatory and digestive systems. The integrated product of all of these functioning organs is the organism. The organism and all of its component parts are made up of atoms and molecules of chemical elements. If we examine these elements and their distribution in our bodies we see the following percentages by body weight: Oxygen Manganese 0.00013 The digestion of food is the combination of the mechanical and chemical process by which food is absorbed into our bodies. It is obvious to all of us that chunks of meat, potatoes and vegetables dont just float around in our bodies after we eat a meal. Foods cannot be used until they are digested and converted into simple substances that can pass through the cells of the small intestine and then into the blood or lymph.

The process begins in the mouth as the food is chewed and mixed with saliva, which matches the first of many enzymes that starts the chemical breakdown. Enzymes are protein molecules that catalyze the chemical reactions by lowering the energy level required to drive these reactions. Each of the many chemical reactions in the body require a different, specialized enzyme. All enzymes can be reused but some need to be replaced more quickly than others. An enzyme can change compound X into compounds Y and Z without being changed itself. Digestion is only the beginning of the series of biological events that takes place as food is incorporated into the human body. Eventually, the nutrients materials in some form will reach every cell. Nutrients begin their travels by entering the bloodstream, or circulation as water, which will carry them to where they are needed. It is interesting to understand that their are over 70 trillion cells in our body and each of these cells have an important part to play in our well being. Water passes through our cells on a regular basis and usually passes into over a 100 cells before everything from the water soluble minerals or enzymes have been captured by these cells. Remember the cell has no way of passing anything through it that is not water soluble.

Try dissolving some of your vitamins or minerals in water to see how soluble they are. Water serves as a lubricant in digestion and almost all other body processes. The water in saliva facilitates chewing and swallowing, ensuring that foods will slide easily down the esophagus. Water in other digestive fluids sustains movement throughout the gastrointestinal system. The watery fluid surrounding such body parts as joints and eyeballs helps them move smoothly and is in fact their only lubricant. The solvent properties of water discussed earlier underlie some of its other functions and are nutritionally important in several ways. Enzymes, hormones and coenzymes are all dissolved in watery body fluids and act on metabolites (amino acids, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals) that are similarly dissolved. Water also serves as a solvent for waste products such as urea, carbon dioxide and various electrolytes that the body excretes. As a solvent containing these substances, water is necessary for transport to and from all cells of the body. Water is an active participant in Hydrolysis, which is a major chemical process of the body. During this process water molecules separate into hydrogen (H+) and hydroxyl (OH-) groups, each of which reacts with other substances.

Sucrose, for example, is hydrolyzed into fructose and glucose forms, which can be utilized by body cells. In addition, water serves as a reactant in intracellular reactions and plays an important role in the maintenance of our electrolyte balance. Approximately 60% of the bodies total water content is contained inside the cells and makes up the intracellular compartment. The balance of the extracellular compartment has two major divisions. The intravascular fluid represents 20% of the extracellular fluid in the body and is the liquid component of the blood and is present in the heart, our arteries, veins and capillaries. The interstitial and transcellular fluid account for 80% of the extracellular fluid in the body. These fluids include the fluids that bathe all the cells, spinal fluids, ocular fluid for lubricating the eyes, the synovial fluid that lubricates joints, various secretions such as (saliva, bile, gastric juice, mucus) and lymph. This is just a short discussion of how water works in our bodies. Naturally, it is a very complex subject.

I hope I have given you a better idea of how our bodies work and how important water is to maintaining a healthy state. Considering these factors, we need to emphasize the importance of consuming appropriate amounts of water, that is in a form that is usable by the body. We hope you will read on, and consider the information provided in the personal care and nutrition section of our site. BIBLIOGRAPHY Patricia A. Kreutler, Dorice M. Czajka-Narins Nutrition in Perspective Appendix 554-556 Patricia A. Kreutler, Dorice M. Czajka-Narins Nutrition in Perspective 309-312 Fascinating Facts You Never Knew About the Human Brain Fascinating Facts You Never Knew About the Human Brain January 22, 2009 | 254,511 views Please to continue. 0 The human brain has amazed and baffled people throughout the ages. Some scientists and researchers have devoted their entire lives to learning how the brain works. Here are some facts about your brain. Physical Attributes The weight of your brain is about 3 pounds. Your skin weighs twice as much as your brain.

Your brain is made up of about 75 percent water. Your brain consists of about 100 billion neurons. There are anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 synapses for each neuron. There are no pain receptors in your brain, so your brain can feel no pain. There are 100,000 miles of blood vessels in your brain. Your brain is the fattest organ in your body and may consist of at least 60 percent fat. The Developing Brain At birth, your brain was almost the same size as an adult brain and contained most of the brain cells for your whole life. A newborn baby’s brain grows about three times its size in the first year. Humans continue to make new neurons throughout life in response to mental activity. The first sense to develop while in utero is the sense of touch. The lips and cheeks can experience touch at about 8 weeks and the rest of the body around 12 weeks. Brain Function Your brain uses 20 percent of the total oxygen in your body. If your brain loses blood for 8 to 10 seconds, you will lose consciousness.

While awake, your brain generates between 10 and 23 watts of power -- or enough energy to power a light bulb. The old adage of humans only using 10% of their brain is not true. Every part of the brain has a known function. The brain can live for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen, and then it begins to die. No oxygen for 5 to 10 minutes will result in permanent brain damage. A study of 1 million students in New York showed that students who ate lunches that did not include artificial flavors, preservatives, and dyes did 14 percent better on IQ tests than students who ate lunches with these additives. Psychology of Your Brain You can’t tickle yourself because your brain distinguishes between unexpected external touch and your own touch. There is a class of people known as supertasters who not only have more taste buds on their tongue, but whose brain is more sensitive to the tastes of foods and drinks. In fact, they can detect some flavors that others cannot. The connection between body and mind is a strong one. One estimate is that between 50-70 percent of visits to the doctor for physical ailments are attributed to psychological factors.

Memory Every time you recall a memory or have a new thought, you are creating a new connection in your brain. Memories triggered by scent have a stronger emotional connection, and therefore appear more intense than other memory triggers. While you sleep at night may be the best time for your brain to consolidate all your memories from the day. Lack of sleep may actually hurt your ability to create new memories. Dreams and Sleep Most people dream about 1-2 hours a night and have an average of 4-7 dreams each night. Studies show that brain waves are more active while dreaming than when you are awake. Some people (about 12 percent) dream only in black and white while others dream in color. While you sleep, your body produces a hormone that may prevent you from acting out your dreams, leaving you virtually paralyzed. Dr. Mercola's Comments: Your brain has been called the most complex object in the universe -- despite being the subject of countless scientific studies, there is still much left to be discovered. It’s known, for instance, that neurons in your brain are specialized cells that produce brief spikes of voltage in their outer membranes.

Each neuron in your brain’s cortex receives input from as many as 10,000 other neurons, but no one knows exactly how information is coded through this system. And when you learn something new, it’s known that your brain undergoes physical changes, but no one really knows what those changes are. Same goes for memory storage and retrieval. How your brain is able to retrieve certain memories and information in the instant you need them remains a mystery. Then there are those completely astounding cases that really showcase what your brain is capable of, such as 20-something Daniel Tammet who can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head and learn a language in a week. And no one can begin to explain how Stephen Wiltshire, a 32-year-old artist with autism , can create unbelievably detailed drawings of entire cities after seeing them for just minutes. While researchers continue on trying to understand how and why your brain works the way it does, you may be interested in knowing what you can do to keep yours functioning at its best … and there’s quite a lot. Your Brain Keeps Developing Well Into Middle Age Brain volume was commonly believed to stop expanding after age 20.

But in MRI brain scans researchers have found that white matter in your brain continues to increase until people are in their mid- to late-40s . I haven’t personally reviewed this research, but I suspect that the study was done on the “average” non-healthy population, so if you pursued a healthy lifestyle, my guess is that this growth could continue to expand well into old age. You see, your brain keeps growing in the temporal lobe and frontal lobe -- the parts of your brain that largely differentiates you from animals. This continued brain growth into middle-age can be associated with better emotional development and wisdom. Your brain is actually very much like a muscle. That is, your brain's structure changes over time and it may be possible to "bulk up" your brain throughout much of adulthood. And continuing to stimulate and challenge your brain as you get older might promote its growth -- just as exercise builds muscle. This means that the opposite also holds true; that drug use, poor nutrition or other assaults on your brain even in adulthood could interfere with your brain’s full development. But your brain is remarkably resilient and capable even of growing new cells to repair itself .

So even if you haven’t been leading the healthiest lifestyle so far, making some positive changes now may give your brain what it needs to reach its full potential. How to Keep Your Brain Healthy: Nine Essential Tips A healthy lifestyle can help protect, nourish, and revitalize your brain. This includes: 1. Taking omega-3 fats. The omega -3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) keep the dopamine levels in your brain high, increase neuronal growth in the frontal cortex of your brain, and increase cerebral circulation. Krill oil is an excellent source of omega-3, and may even be superior to fish oil . 2. Exercising. Exercise may encourage your brain to work at optimum capacity by causing nerve cells to multiply, strengthening their interconnections and protecting them from damage. 3. Sleeping well. It’s during sleep that your mental energy is restored, and a lack of sleep may cause your brain to stop producing new cells . 4. Eating healthy. Like the rest of your body, your brain depends on healthy foods to function.

While protein is the main source of fuel for your brain, vitamins and minerals from fresh veggies are also important, as is limiting sugar. 5. Getting out into the sun. This will help you maintain optimal vitamin D levels. Scientists are now beginning to realize vitamin D is involved in maintaining the health of your brain, as they’ve recently discovered vitamin D receptors in the brain, spinal cord, and central nervous system. 10 Unbelievable Facts About Human Brain That Everyone Should Know. - Unbelievable Facts 10 Unbelievable Facts About Human Brain That Everyone Should Know. Unbelievable Facts Jul 2, 2012 18,439 Views HERE ARE 10 MIND BOGGLING FACTS ABOUT HUMAN BRAIN!! Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Ever wonder how you can react so fast to things around you or why that stubbed toe hurts right away? It’s due to the super-speedy movement of nerve impulses from your brain to the rest of your body and vice versa, bringing reactions at the speed of a high powered luxury sports car. The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10-watt light bulb.

The cartoon image of a light bulb over your head when a great thought occurs isn’t too far off the mark. Your brain generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you’re sleeping. The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or any other encyclopedia for that matter. Scientists have yet to settle on a definitive amount, but the storage capacity of the brain in electronic terms is thought to be between 3 or even 1,000 terabytes. The National Archives of Britain, containing over 900 years of history, only takes up 70 terabytes, making your brain’s memory power pretty darn impressive. Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen that enters your bloodstream.The brain only makes up about 2% of our body mass, yet consumes more oxygen than any other organ in the body, making it extremely susceptible to damage related to oxygen deprivation. So breathe deep to keep your brain happy and swimming in oxygenated cells.

The brain is much more active at night than during the day.Logically, you would think that all the moving around, complicated calculations and tasks and general interaction we do on a daily basis during our working hours would take a lot more brain power than, say, lying in bed. Turns out, the opposite is true. When you turn off your brain turns on. Scientists don’t yet know why this is but you can thank the hard work of your brain while you sleep for all those pleasant dreams. Scientists say the higher your I.Q. the more you dream. While this may be true, don’t take it as a sign you’re mentally lacking if you can’t recall your dreams. Most of us don’t remember many of our dreams and the average length of most dreams is only 2-3 seconds–barely long enough to register. Neurons continue to grow throughout human life. For years scientists and doctors thought that brain and neural tissue couldn’t grow or regenerate. While it doesn’t act in the same manner as tissues in many other parts of the body, neurons can and do grow throughout your life, adding a whole new dimension to the study of the brain and the illnesses that affect it. Information travels at different speeds within different types of neurons.

Not all neurons are the same. There are a few different types within the body and transmission along these different kinds can be as slow as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 meters/sec. The brain itself cannot feel pain. While the brain might be the pain center when you cut your finger or burn yourself, the brain itself does not have pain receptors and cannot feel pain. That doesn’t mean your head can’t hurt. The brain is surrounded by loads of tissues, nerves and blood vessels that are plenty receptive to pain and can give you a pounding headache. 80% of the brain is water. Your brain isn’t the firm, gray mass you’ve seen on TV. Living brain tissue is a squishy, pink and jelly-like organ thanks to the loads of blood and high water content of the tissue. So the next time you’re feeling dehydrated get a drink to keep your brain hydrated. 2012-07-02 The Hardest "True Or False" Quiz You'll Take Today It’s true! It’s not as good as a dog’s, but the human nose is still pretty incredible . 5. Adults have fewer bones than babies do. True!

Lots of bones (like the cranium) start out as several fragments at birth , then fuse together into a single bone later in life. 6. Napoleon Bonaparte was extremely short. That’s false. Even though he’s widely believed to have been short, he was actually above average height for his time . 7. Goldfish only have a memory of three seconds. subinpumsom/Thinkstock It’s false. Goldfishes’ legendarily short memory is a common belief, but it’s been debunked repeatedly . They can actually remember things for quite a long time. 8. There are more cells of bacteria in your body than there are human cells. It’s true! 9. Your fingernails and hair keep growing after you die. It’s false! danku/Thinkstock True! Not all dinosaurs became extinct; some of them survived, and every bird alive today is descended from those survivors . 11. It costs the U.S. Mint more to make pennies and nickels than the coins are actually worth. True! 12. Water spirals down the plughole in opposite directions in the northern and southern hemispheres. Faaaaaaalse.

It really doesn’t (even though some people on the equator make a living fooling tourists into thinking it does…) 13. Buzz Aldrin was the first man to urinate on the moon. NASA/AFP / Getty Images True! The second man to stand on fthe moon was the first to pee there (into a special bag in his spacesuit) – shortly after he stepped off the ladder of Apollo 11’s Lunar Module. 14. Twinkies have an infinite shelf life. False! The official shelf life of a Twinkie is 45 days . People have kept them around for longer, but they become inedible. 15. Humans can’t breathe and swallow at the same time. That’s true. It’s because our voice box is lower in the throat than other primates (who can do both at once.) On the plus side, this means we can use language… 16. The popular image of Santa Claus – chubby, bearded, in red and white clothes – was invented by Coca-Cola for an ad campaign. 17. The top of the Eiffel Tower leans away from the sun. It’s true.

The metal of the tower expands in the heat of the sun, so the sun-facing side is always slightly bigger than the one facing away – making it lean as much as seven inches away from the sun . 18. Drinking alcohol kills brain cells. That’s false. Drinking pretty much any non-fatal amount of alcohol won’t add enough alcohol to your blood stream to destroy your neurons. 19. The owner of the company that makes Segways died after accidentally driving his Segway off a cliff. Chapter 11: True or False Chapter 11: True or False Chapter 11: True or False This activity contains 15 questions. The motor division of the PNS carries information from the CNS. False Dendrites are slender extensions of the cell body that carry information away from the cell body of the neuron. False The meninges are four chambers in the brain that are filled with cerebrospinal fluid, which circulates through them to protect the brain. Motor neurons serving smooth and cardiac muscle are part of the somatic nervous system. Psychoactive drugs may act by altering the concentration of neurotransmitters in the brain. Spinal reflexes are voluntary responses to stimuli and often act to protect the body.

False The hindbrain is the region that receives and integrates sensory input from the external environment and determines most of our more complex behavior. Inhibitory neurotransmitters cause the hyperpolarization of the postsynaptic cell. False Alzheimer's disease is a disorder of memory impairment and Parkinson's disease affects physical activity, but both result from a lack of a particular neurotransmitter.

Question: Human brains are 75% water. True or false?
Answer: True